Following the tragedy in which five people lost their lives aboard the Titan submersible that was taking them to visit the wreckage of the Titanic, a video about the OceanGate company has shocked thousands of people on social networks.
“I would like to be remembered as an innovator. I think it was General MacArthur who said, ‘You’re remembered for the rules you break.’ I have broken some rules to make this possible. I think I broke them backed by good logic and engineering. Carbon fiber and titanium, there’s a rule not to do it, well, I did it,” said Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate, who lost his life in the submersible.
At the time, various specialists, including James Cameron, have opened a great debate in the United States about the various safety warnings that were given to the company. This statement that has come back to the public light strengthens that theory.
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OceanGate Rejects Criticisms About Security
The entrepreneur Guillermo Söhnlein, co-founder of OceanGate, the company that operated the trips to the Titanic wreckage of the submersible, rejected some critics about the company’s safety, considering that those people do not have “all the information” to be able to give their opinion. Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Söhnlein, an Argentinian-born American who left the company ten years ago but still owns a minority stake in it, said that those commenting on matters relating to the safety conditions of the Titanic submersible are not “fully informed.”
“People are just equating certification with safety and ignoring the 14 years of development of the Titan submersible,” he lamented. According to him, “Any expert who weighs this, including (director James) Cameron, will also admit that they were not around when the submersible was designed, during the engineering process of the submersible, during the construction of the submersible, and certainly not when the rigorous testing program the submersible underwent was conducted.”
Söhnlein called what happened “a tragic loss to the ocean exploration community,” but noted that anyone working in the ocean “knows the risk of operating under such pressure and knows that at any given moment they are at risk of such an implosion.”
James Cameron’s Harsh Criticism of OceanGate
James Cameron, the great director of the movie Titanic and who has traveled 33 times to the site of the wreckage, spoke about the implosion of the submersible in which five people died. The famous filmmaker, who is also passionate about underwater exploration, considered that several specialists had already warned about several failures in the safety and protocols of the OceanGate company.
“I think there is a great and almost surreal irony in all this. The Titanic sank because the captain decided to go full power into an ice field during a moonless night with very poor visibility despite being warned several times. We’re seeing that parallel here with warnings that went unheeded about a submersible that wasn’t certified.”
James Cameron acknowledged that this has to serve all involved going forward. “Today we’re looking at a case where everyone involved didn’t remember the lesson of the Titanic. I think it’s heartbreaking because it was preventable.”
Who Is James Cameron?
In addition to being one of the most important directors in the history of cinema, James Cameron is one of the most recognized marine explorers in the world. Not only has he made 33 trips to the wreck of the Titanic, but he has also gone to much deeper and more recondite places such as the Mariana Trench.
James Cameron travels in his own submersible called Deepsea Challenger whose construction took years of study and work together with several specialists. “When you visit the Titanic you feel the presence of the tragedy, and I think that’s its appeal. That’s why people want to go and live the experience. To feel and remember the history.
Titan: What Was the Cause of Death of the People in the Submersible?
The wreckage was found by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) operated by the Canadian ship Horizon Arctic and subsequently determined by experts to be “consistent with a catastrophic implosion,” i.e., a rupture and sinking caused by increased pressure from outside. Rear Admiral John Mauger, of the U.S. Coast Guard, said that the bodies of the five people have not been found and, although there is no longer hope of finding them alive, what will continue is the recovery of the wreckage to explain with certainty what happened.
Through the debris, the specialists could explain when the implosion occurred and also what were the causes of the accident. “Right now it is too early to say,” explained the rear admiral, who did specify that the sonar buoys that were placed in the sea detected several sounds but did not perceive “any catastrophic event.”
Who Passed in the Titan Submersible?
On the submersible were Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood with his son Suleman, a 19-year-old student; British explorer Hamish Harding; French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet; and OceanGate firm CEO Stockton Rush. “Upon this determination, we immediately notified the families on behalf of the U.S. Coast Guard and the entire unified command. I offer my deepest condolences to the families,” Mauger said.
According to underwater expert Paul Hanken, “five major pieces” were found, which they recognized as the “wreckage of the Titan.” The first thing found was “the nose cone, which was outside the pressure room.” “We found the bell from the front of the pressure room, and this was the first indication that there was a catastrophic event shortly thereafter,” he specified.
The company that owns the submersible, OceanGate, confirmed the death of the crew members minutes before the Coast Guard press conference. Through a statement distributed to the media, the company said, “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet are sadly lost.”
What Happened to the Submersible?
On Thursday morning, the U.S. Coast Guard reported via social networks that it had found “a debris field within the search area near the Titanic,” at a depth of about 3800 meters. The rescue work began last Sunday and focused on an area located approximately 1450 kilometers) from Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
It was last Monday when the company reported that it had had no contact with the submersible since Sunday. On Sunday, the U.S. Coast Guard began an extensive search operation with the help of Canada to locate the submersible.
The search involved troops and resources from the U.S., Canada, France, and the United Kingdom, with aircraft, boats, and underwater drones. The mission to go down to see the wreckage of the ship, which sank in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg, should have lasted ten hours. OceanGate Expeditions was the owner and operator of the submersible, used to conduct deep-sea expeditions.
On its website, the company offers eight-day, seven-night trips to visit the wreck of the Titanic, which lies some 3,800 meters below the surface, for approximately $250,000.
Where Are the Remains of the Titanic?
The wreckage of the Titanic is located at 3800 meters on the seabed and about 600 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland in Canada. In recent decades, the area has been visited several times by scientists, explorers, tourists, and, of course, film directors such as James Cameron.
Thousands of artifacts have been recovered that show what a world-class ship looked like at the time; however, over time, the Titanic’s condition has deteriorated due to the constant growth of bacteria. That is why, as of 2001, UNESCO included the wreckage in its famous Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.
Story written in Spanish by Miguel Fernández in Cultura Colectiva News
